


Welcome to the Mad House

by Nesapotamia



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU College, Castiel is confused, Dean and Charlie are both uber geeks, F/F, Jo is over it, M/M, Multi, Silly, a house full of goofy people, and Benny is amused, no supernatural, sam is annoyed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-13
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-08 15:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nesapotamia/pseuds/Nesapotamia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'But I don't want to go among mad people,' said Alice.<br/>'Oh, you can't help that,' said the cat. 'We're all mad here.'<br/>~Lewis Carroll</p><p>Castiel needs a new place to live when he moves to a new city to start his Masters program.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This may just be a one shot. I have a few ideas but I have no idea if it will really continue considering I already have two others i am working on. This was just a bit of silly fluff.  
> I hope you like it. :)

Castiel looked up at the unassuming house in front of him and checked the address on his phone. The yard was clean and there were flower beds out front with little yellow flowers in them. The house itself was in good repair; covered in a light blue siding with white trim, shutters and front door. It looked more like a family residence than a place where a bunch of college kids lived. The ad said “Room available in a house full of college students. Rent/Utilities shared” and had listed a phone number and a dollar amount for rent that he found somewhat unbelievable.  He looked over at the mailbox to check the house number and started laughing; over the numbers in bright yellow paint was written “The Batcave”. Yep, college kids. 

Walking up to the front porch he could hear laughter coming from inside the house. Movement caught his eye and he turned to the large window overlooking the front yard in time to see a small blonde woman slide past it and disappear into a doorway. She was soon followed by a gangly kid with floppy brow hair though he was far less graceful. A female voice shouted “Banzai!” and a woman with long red hair flew past the window sliding much faster than the others, and he heard two voices shout ‘oh crap!’ before the red head vanished through the door. Loud thundering footsteps were heard before a man with short light brown hair slid past the window, head back, fist in the air with pinky and pointer finger raised before he too crashed through the open doorway. Castiel took a moment to peek into said doorway and was not surprised to see a pile of people laughing and trying to shove themselves off the floor while hampering everyone else’s attempts to do the same thing.

The younger of the two males looked out of the door and immediately looked panicked. “Oh sweet frakkin Christ! Benny NO!!!” he screamed.

The four people on the floor all began to flail and scream in terror as a large burly man slid past the window, pin wheeled his arms and at the very last second stopped his momentum by grabbing the door frame.

“You are such an asshole” said a male voice.  The man in the doorway, Benny, just laughed. “Relax princess I’m not gonna fall on those delicate bones of yours.”

Everyone was starting to finally stand up so Castiel thought it was a good time to stop looking in the window like a creeper and knock on the door.  He heard a sudden scuffling commotion, a few yelps of pain and then a triumphant “I win!” from behind the door before it was flung open by the red haired woman. She took one look at him and her mouth dropped open. Castiel fidgeted for a moment; perhaps the suit and his tan coat were a bad idea. Did he look like a salesman? Abruptly the door closed and he heard:

“Holy Christ Dean get over here!”

“What?” said the same male voice that had called Benny an asshole.

“John freaking Constantine is outside!”  

“What?!” The door was flung open again and the most beautiful man Castiel had ever seen looked at him with stunned (and stunning) green eyes, before the door was promptly shut again.

“Holy shit you’re right! What do we do?”

“Maybe you two idiots could actually find out what the man wants? Perhaps by opening the door and acting like real people and not the psycho nerds you really are?” said a female voice filled with equal parts exasperation and amusement.

The door opened again and this time it was the short blond woman standing there.

“Please excuse those two, they are mentally deficient and occasionally forget where reality is. How can we help you today?” she smiled politely.

“Um… I’m here about the ad for a room available? Is it still free? Well no of course it isn't free, I’d have to pay naturally, and I would because I can which is of course why I am here. As I am sure you are aware because I told you. I do not know who John Constantine is but I can assure you that I am not him, nor do I know anyone by that name. If I do share a resemblance to that person I hope it doesn't upset anyone.”  He gave a nervous laugh. Sometimes when Castiel was feeling out of sorts he started to ramble. This was one of those times, and he forced his mouth shut out of desperation to not let it continue.

The blond girl in front of him looked over at the other four in the room.

“Oh yeah, he’s one of us.” She stepped back from the door and motioned him inside. Stepping into the living room he could see a cozy space with a large couch and a squashy looking recliner in front of a large flat screen T.V. There were shelves lining the walls filled with books and an assortment of knick knacks, figurines and models from nearly every fandom Castiel had ever heard of. There was a T.A.R.D.I.S. sitting next to a Viper on one shelf; a Firefly class ship model next to a statue of Wolverine on another. On one wall there was a framed vintage Godzilla poster. He saw Nuka Cola bottles, the shield of Hyrule with the Master Sword, a Borg cube, a stand with 5 wands sticking out of it, and another holding Hellboy’s left forearm.

 _Dear God,_ he thought _I am in geeky fanboy heaven._

Everyone except Dean (who blushed a little and looked at the floor while rubbing the back of his neck) laughed and he realized he’s said that out loud.

The redhead piped up, “That’s ‘cause Deany here _is_ a geeky fanboy.”

“Hey! It’s not like I am the only geek in this house.”

“Nope” said the boy standing next to Dean, “You’re just the King of them.”

“Well, Charlie’s the Queen … “Dean replied somewhat defensively.

“You’re damn right I am ... ” replied Charlie.

“ANYWAY,” the blond cut in,  “Welcome to our humble abode. I am Jo, the big guy is Benny, the shrimp over there is Sammy” she ignored Sammy’s protest at being called both shrimp and Sammy” copper top there is Charlie and the pouting pretty boy over there is Dean.”

“Hey! I’m not pouting! I do own this house you know; maybe you should be nicer to me.” Dean said, glaring at Jo.

“Yeah”, she said dismissively “Like you’re gonna throw me out." Turning back to Castiel she asked if he wanted to see the room. “If you think you still want to live in this house of lunatics” she added.

Despite all the bickering and glares there was an unmistakable fondness and friendship between all five of them and Castiel found he wanted to become part of that if he could. They _had_ all just accepted his rambling _without_ the usual ‘Is this guy crazy’ look he was used to.

“Yes, I am still interested, where is the room?”

Jo led him up a flight of stairs into a hallway with five doors, all but one of which was closed and through the open door was a moderately sized bathroom.

"Dean shares the Master with Sammy (“It’s Sam!”), Charlie and I are in that one, and Benny is through there. Your room is on the third floor. “She indicated each room in turn before opening a door at the end of the hallway with a set of stairs directly behind it.

“It’s just up here” she said as all six of them made the climb into the attic bedroom.

Castiel had been a little apprehensive when she said third floor as the house did not look big enough to have any usable space in the attic but he has pleasantly surprised to see a decently sized space. One of the walls was slanted in which took away some of the space but Castiel did not own much, just a bed a desk and some bookshelves so this would be perfect.

“We have to double up on the bathrooms” said Dean. “Sammy (“urgh”) and I have one in the Master, Jo and Charlie have an en suite and you and Benny would be sharing the one in the hallway. Would that be a problem?”

"Actually this is perfect. It has enough room for all my stuff and we’re so close to campus I won’t have to take the bus anymore. Um … I have to ask though, the rent, is that real or do we need to negotiate since I am not sharing a room?” There was no way that number could be right, not for the space and the location. It had to be a misprint.

“Nope, priced as advertised” offered Benny, “Trust me I was surprised too. I think Dean just likes to have people around to help with Sam.”

“Aww come on Benny, having little Sammy around is a perk!” said Charlie as she turned to ruffle Sam’s hair. He flailed a bit in protest, trying to dislodge her. He succeeded only to have Jo pinch his cheeks.

“Don’t get upset Sammykins you know we love you” she said, cooing at him like he was a baby.

By this time Dean was laughing so Sam looked to Benny for help. “Don’t look at me kid. Two pretty ladies are trying to make you their squishy faced angel baby and I'm not going to interfere.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Castiel said.

“What could ‘squishy faced angel baby’ possibly remind you of?” Dean cut in, incredulously. The room had gone silent as they all turned to look at Castiel.

“My name, it’s Castiel.” They stared blankly trying to make the connection. “I’m named after an angel.”

“Oh” they all said at once.

“Well that does make sense” said Charlie.

“Is he the angel of squishy faced teenagers?” asked Jo.

Sam snorted and stomped back downstairs muttering about hating everyone in the room.

Castiel chuckled “No, he’s the angel of Thursday actually. I think he might have something to do with rebellion too, though I am not sure.”

“Cool,” said Dean “You can make dinner on Thursday then. Jo and Charlie have Tuesdays and Benny is always in charge of Sunday lunch. We’ll explain the chore schedule after we get you moved in. It’s nothing huge; we all just chip in is all. Where’s your stuff?”

Castiel was stunned for a moment. Was it really this easy? “Do you need to see references or anything?”

“Do you have any?” asked Dean.

“Well, no.”

“Dean’s good at judging people Cas, and it’s obvious you’re good people. So, welcome to the madhouse” sang Charlie.

“Must not be too good at it if I let you people live here” Dean said as he walked down the stairs.

“Oh cork it Captain Tight Pants, you know you love all of us!”

“Yeah, yeah” he replied as they followed him downstairs. “Let’s go get the newest inmate's stuff so he can settle in.” He paused at the bottom of the stairs and turned to look up at their newest addition. Castiel found he rather liked seeing Dean from that angle and nearly missed his question. “Where’d you say your stuff was?”

“Oh, I hadn't yet. It’s in storage here in town. I was going to rent a truck to bring it over if I got the room.”

“No need, Benny here has a truck. Do you need to go anywhere right now Ben?”

“Nah” said the large man as they continued on to the first floor. “We can go get it all now of you want.”

Two hours later all of Castiel’s things were safely tucked away in his new room. He was sitting on his bed, in his new room about to start attending a new university to work on his Masters in Aeronautical Engineering. He sighed and flopped backwards.

 _This is a very good start to the next chapter_ , he thought.


	2. Getting to know you...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> i had another chapter up but i did not like it so i took it down. i felt inspired today so here is another attempt.
> 
> Holy crap I posted to two stories in a day. Perhaps my muse was not so dead as I thought.

After living in the house for a couple of weeks Castiel had learned some basic information about his new home and the people who lived in it.  
First, Benny was the cook. Even though there was an official chore list posted on the wall in the kitchen it was generally accepted that Benny did most, if not all, of the cooking. Castiel learned this when he walked into the kitchen for what he thought was his turn at making breakfast only to discover Benny already making French toast. He's been mortified at first, thinking that he had overslept and now Benny was having to cover his slack. When he tried to apologize Benny had waved it off.  
"No worries, brother. It's French Toast day. I always have this covered."  
"But, my name is on the wall for breakfast today..." Castiel had replied, still confused.  
Benny chuckled. "Yeah man, I don't know why he insists on putting that up there. Everyone knows I'm the cook around here. The others usually just cover one of my chores for the day they are supposed to cook." Castiel frowned and looked at the list again to see what Benny's 'chore' for the day was. Dishes...eugh...  
Castiel sighed. "I'll take care of breakfast dishes then." Stupid chore chart.

Second, Dean and Charlie were best friends and had been since they were both small. Dean and Charlie had been best friends since their first day of kindergarten. The story, as told by Jo, was that the two of them separately noticed a playground bully picking on a group of kids and had both moved in to attack. The unnamed bully had been unprepared for anyone to stand up to her and as a result of her lack of caution had been barreled over quite easily by the two tiny vigilantes who then proceeded to sit on her and smack any exposed skin as hard as their small hands could. When the teachers finally pulled them off they started yelling about justice and that “vile fiends would pay!” (Charlie) and “the innocent will be protected! (Dean). They were taken inside, cleaned up and sat down in the principal’s office while their parents were contacted.  
Because they had known each other for so long they were very close and existed on the same wavelength in a manner that was almost creepy. They woke up at the same time, exited their respected bedrooms at the same time and walked downstairs to their coffee pot together. They had their own coffee pot, which Jo had nicknamed the mud bog. Apparently they liked coffee strong enough to stand on its own power. He was going to try some as he liked strong coffee himself but had decided not too when Sam looked almost comically frightened at the idea. "Dude!" he exclaimed. "That crap is not for human consumption."  
"But, your brother and Charlie drink it every morning." Sam just nodded. "Well that just proves the point doesn't it? Those two are mutants." This had made Castiel frown, but he chose not to comment on it.  
Neither Charlie or Dean had paid the slightest bit of attention to this exchange and were staring at the coffee pot as it percolated. Dean reached up to push Charlie’s hair out of her face just as she reached over and scratched the side of his nose. Ok, maybe they weren’t mutants, but that was just weird. 

Third, Dean took his responsibilities to Sam very seriously. He read parenting magazines, scoured the internet and spoke with other "parents" to make sure he was helping Sam grow and develop in as health way as possible. Most of the time it made sense. Everyone did homework in the living room in case Sam needed help with his homework. Anything they could not help with was turned over to a tutor after much fretting from Dean over whether or not they would really be helpful. Everyone attempted to limit screen time on phones, tablets and TV’s but with so many screens available to be watched they had all but given up on that one. Sam was to eat healthy food, get at least 10 hours of sleep a night and visit his doctor for regular checkups. Very sensible. Other aspects were just...well...  
Case in point. Dean had read that it was important for growing boys to get at least an hour of exercise a day. Dean had tried to get Sam interested in riding a bicycle regularly, or perhaps playing a sport like soccer, something Castiel was certain Sam would enjoy. The only problem was that these suggestions were coming from his occasionally overbearing older brother and as such were to be rejected on principle. So it led to the madness currently happening in the back yard.  
Dean, and Charlie (who was often Dean's partner in crime for moments like these) were chasing Sam through the back yard sometimes together and sometimes splitting up in an attempt catch him. Castiel, Benny and Jo were all standing on the deck watching the melee in varying degrees of concern (Cas) and amusement (Jo and Benny).  
"Won't the neighbors worry about this and call the police?"  
Sam was running toward the deck being chased by his brother. He barely dodged Charlie who jumped out of a bush at him and ran off cackling.  
"Nah" drawled Benny.  
"They're used to Dean's parenting methods." offered Jo.  
Castiel was about to reply when Dean ran by being chased by the other two now. Charlie had a procured a water gun from somewhere.  
"Didn't the Johnson's once ask if Dean would run their kids too?" asked Jo.  
"Come to think of it they did. Not sure what came of that though."  
When the trio went by again Dean had Charlie over his shoulder who was trying to shoot Sam with the water gun who was chasing the two of them attempting to block the water with a trashcan lid. This madness went on for about 20 more minutes when Jo stepped up to the railing of the deck and yelled "That's an hour!"  
All three people in the yard stopped and went “Awwww..." at the same time before tromping up the deck steps and giving Jo a mutinous glare. Unfazed she pointed into the house. "Showers. Dinner is in 30 minutes."  
"It is?" Benny asked with a raised eyebrow.  
"Sure it is." she replied with a grin and walked back inside.  
"Yes Ma'am" Benny replied before following her.  
Dean was so concerned with his parenting abilities that Cas was sometimes worried that he would forget to be young himself. He had noticed that the others encouraged Dean to goof off every once in a while explaining that if Dean were too worn out form working all the time then he couldn’t take care of Sam. Castiel thought this might have been the reason for the morning routine of every member of the household seeing Sam onto the bus in the morning. This, Castiel deduced, was a chance for Dean to just be ‘teasing older brother’ instead of ‘worried parental figure’. When the bus pulled up Sam would hurry to get on it as quickly as possible but was never able to escape without the other members of the household standing on the front porch in their pajamas or boxers and a robe in Benny’s case and waving.  
“Have a good day Sammy!” Dean.  
“Be a good boy!” Charlie.  
“Get your work done!” Benny.  
“Behave for the teachers!” Jo.  
Cas had panicked the first time and blurted. “Don’t kiss anyone!”  
The others had laughed while Sam glared at him out the bus window.  
“Dude.” Dean said between giggles. “That was awesome!”  
Castiel decided he rather liked making Dean laugh.  
Fourth, Jo appeared to be the voice of reason within the house. She was sensible and frugal and was in charge of household expenses in terms of daily essentials. She did the grocery shopping, having been trained by her business woman mother in getting the best deals. She also dealt with most every outsider to come to the door. She was protective and strict and often had to be the one to talk Dean down when he was worried over his skills as a ‘parent’. She made sure the house ran efficiently and was the tether that kept her occasionally spacey roommates grounded. She also had a rather impressive knife collection and a throwing skill with them that was as impressive as it was scary. She vetted all dates and would send anyone she did not approve of packing. Usually by showing them her knife collection.  
Fifth, Castiel loved living this house. Sure it was noisy, and the other residents were always getting into mischief of one kind or another but it was always lively and good natured and ended in laughter more often than not. They were an interesting bunch and the longer Castiel lived with them the more he came to understand and enjoy their dynamic as a group and individually. When he met new people on campus who knew about this house and its occupants they always expressed their jealousy that he got to live here.  
Castiel had come to a new school in a new town looking to find roommates to help keep expenses low. Instead he found a fascinating little family who had all chosen each other and then had offered him a place in their home. The fact that one of them was a beautiful man who he occasionally caught staring at him and who would then look away with a blush and small smile was just icing on an already perfect cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if you find any mistakes. This us not beta'd.


End file.
